“This year’s budget process faced unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Now more than ever, the health and safety of North Country families is my top priority. Unfortunately, this budget includes unnecessary agenda items proposed by the Governor. This year’s budget takes what should have been a strictly fiscal document and glues it to an enormous amount of policy. As a legislator, this was extremely frustrating because now more than ever I needed to be sure that our organizations get the funding they need to deal with this statewide crisis, and what we did was strap more burdens on our counties. Further, we should have done more for our small businesses and provided more funding for our schools.

However, the 2020-21 budget does include critical investments and initiatives that will help our region. We made some much-needed changes to the bail and discovery laws to help our law enforcement community to protect us, but we need to do much more. I was also able to secure over $1 million in funding for local programs such as the North Country Chamber of Commerce Quebec-New York Corridor Initiative, Older Adults Technology Services, and the Northern New York Agriculture Development Program.

There are many near-term challenges that we must address as the coronavirus pandemic continues to progress. I have long been an advocate for broadband and cellular access, and with more North Country families working and learning from home, the need is even greater. Further, as we deal with the financial stress of this pandemic, now is the time to implement policies that help, not hinder, small business. North Country residents can rest assure that I will continue doing everything I can to protect their heath and economic security during this uncertain time.”